Author Archives: kelly

The relocation chaos has mostly settled. We went to Barcelona for three days over Easter break and had a blast. I’m learning Spanish now for real. Life is getting easier here in Espana. And the other day, when I went to exchange my rental car, Avis gave me a 2021 M-series BMW that I canContinue reading “Life is crazy.”

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I went to a reservoir park. We spent an hour hiking around. There is a quartz line running down toward the beach about 30 ft long, and big chunks of white and rose quartz all over the ground. Great spot for rock hounds like us. Great spotContinue reading “The reservoir”

This thing has a name: expat burnout. It helps to put a name to it. And it helps to know this is common. Even expected. Today I had a chat with a friend/work associate of sorts in Barcelona that made me feel somewhat human again. I needed that social interaction. We’ve been hermiting probably tooContinue reading “Burnout”

It’s time to get real. I’ve been trying to make the best of this relocation despite daily set-backs, complications, mistakes, miscommunications, the language barrier and various other difficulties but I am done pretending now that I’m ok. I am not ok and have not been for some time. This has been a complete disaster. TravelingContinue reading “What I haven’t told you”

Dawn dish soap is ungettable in Spain. Instead, we have soap called Fairy. If you want grits, be prepared to pay. And wait. And if you like Sweet Pea body lotion from Bath and Body Works, I have bad news. I could post more examples, such as how it took us a solid month toContinue reading “fun times shopping on amazon.es”

This morning, I bought our train tickets to Barcelona. I like how there is a whole separate option to avoid London when purchasing train tickets in Europe:

My mantra. My refrain. My go-to phrase whenever I am not home. It’s so rote now it’s almost a lie. I can speak Spanish well enough to tell people I am an American (Soy Americana), and I cannot speak Spanish. Life goes on. Our household goods might leave the US this week on their months-longContinue reading “Lo siento, no hablo Espanol :(“

We are now living in Spain. Without our stuff. That’s a whole different story. Stuff should be on the way soon. We’ve been here three weeks. It’s starting to feel more familiar, like it could feel like home. The first week we were in the house, we slept on a blow-up bed in the livingContinue reading “Ahora estamos viviendo en España.”

We will be living in Madrid by the end of the month. I am writing a book or novella or something – I’m writing something, I have to – on our journey from meeting each other on Beltane to getting married to Hurricane Ida evacuation this summer to becoming homeless and waiting and roaming fromContinue reading “We! Got! Our! Visas!”

We are still waiting on the Spanish embassy to issue visas. This process started in January and the visas are the last step. First I was told I would be in Spain by June, then it was Fall (per the last post) and now it’s looking like we’ll be there in mid January at theContinue reading “Our Casablanca Christmas”